Speaking of Kindle is the bigger Oasis worth the extra squid

Fri 16 Jul 2021, 13:01

Thank you Christine .. I'm still undecided cos since turning to apps light Nigh Reader that reverse text/background from the - fashionable??? - black on a white and slightly flickering background (I see flicker up to 85 hertz on cathode ray tubes, preferably running at 90hz) shifting to light text on black has been less wearing on the single remainimg functional eye. It's not resolution of fine details (apparently my good eye, when corrected a diopter for late onset myopia towards the end of my teens - I'm still in the top 1% for visual acuity. The problem with monocularity with just peripheral vision left in the bad eye is that it makes it much harder to "fix" and track a line of text leading to erratic eye movement as the poor organ seeks to follow along a line and koses it in the VERY narrow arwa covered by the Macular vision. People don't appreciate just how small our focal point is, even with two eyes overlapping and not just a single "beam of attending" which is even more reduced in monocularity.

We CONSTRUCT our visual world in our brain/conciouss from lots of little bits stitched together to make that the whole we "perceive". The problem is that the act of simply "following a line" with monocularity isn't trivial as peopl think - so over-practiced at reading as we become - and this is really (really) made worse by small print with tight line spaces.

If you've also got probale damage to the ear balance sense organ from a too-long delayed medical treatment, negligence like with the eye leading to most function being lost, then the damage to just one set of semi-circular canals leads to ... well, basically ... motion sickness being provoked by a skewed eye visual field construction and semi-circular canals being in imbalance. Result? Frequent bouts of "Sea-Sickness" just from trying to read a magazine in 10 point print.

A lot of computer gamers struggle with nausea and dizziness from the moving screens. It's a real problem. I had to quit computer games in the 90s due to this. Which was a pity 'cos I was beating down flat all the teenage sons of neighbours with my fast reaction times and coordinated multi-control all at once coordination. 14-15 year olds hate being beaten by an old greybeard!!! (Whom I built low cost computers for, and taught them how to do their own in the future, hence the contact with these things prominent then, in the 90s, in boys' culture).

Anyone heard of Mal de'barquemant (spelling?) basically when you get sea-sick from NOT moving, and often feel better when being moved about. Within reason of course, being stuck on a hove-to ferry for 14 hours, off Harwich at night in Force 10 veering 11 winds, will quese the stomach of all but the most hardened sailor... but not so bad that a lot of us retired to the dining and kithchen area to play cards with the catering crew cos it was the only place without the reek of vomit on the old Konongen Beatrice....

But yes, reverse text on a tablet is being considered. They're much heavier, don't have 300 dpm resolution, - although the expensive Apple Retina display is getting there - baterries run out quick etc but then they are *general purpose* computation machines so you've got all that potential facility as and when you want it. 

And they are white pages with black text where I am finding reverse "dark mode" on computers and tablets and phones less glaring on the eye.

So, yes, its a real hmm type balance of pros and cons.

hmmm.